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Thought framework
When thinking about a thermostat the current industry setup is quite simple. One can however see that there is a movement of connecting the thermostat to the internet and making it more intelligent. One of those developments is the NEST thermostat.
A thermostat is a self contained device that measures the temperature and instructs the heater what to do. Hereby the thermostat performs this activity as you have instructed it using some logic. Some thermostats measure the outside temperature next to the inside temperature to take heat leaking into account.
Schematically the thermostat thus has the following components:
- heater instructor
- temperature sensor(s)
- (programmable) logic / processor
- human machine interface
While brainstorming we agreed that a major limitation is that the thermostat is always installed at the wrong location. Because of this it is either too hot or too cold in your home. When you can setup your heater to follow a specific schedule it doesn't easily take into account when you actually wake up or when you aren't at home. Connecting a thermostat to your sleep cycle via an appropriate sensor and by allowing it to know when you are to be at home would allow for energy saving.
An interesting question that came up during one of the meetups is that it would be interesting to have multiple temperature sensors out of which you can choose which one to set to the master sensor. Because we are creating our own open system this is a possibility we can explore.
Current more traditional thermostats have some form of interacting with them. Thereby they allow via buttons, a turning wheel or even a touch screen to setup the thermostat. More modern thermostats also allow you to interact with your heating system via a webpage or app on your smartphone.
These more modern systems also allow you to hook it up to home automation. Hereby home automation has a promise of allowing you to no longer worry about. The future might be that there is an API that would tell the home automation system by when you will be awake, what you're schedule is, where you are, if you are in a state where you want it to be warmer or cooler etc.
From an energy saving perspective there are different streams of thought on how to accomplish this. One stream follows the philosophy that by making the thermostat smarter the energy saving occurs. Hereby the heating system becomes somewhat invisible. One could see it as watching through a pair of glasses, thereby not realizing that you're looking through them.
Another stream looks at it differently. Only by forcing the user to interact with the heating system and be fully aware of it the user can make more effectively use of the heating system. In this view the heating system is harvesting the end-user's focus and attention to achieve cost savings.
This range is a starting point to further think about what a thermostat is and in what form we would want the various components. From a self-contained connected device till loosely connected parts performing the same tasks.